Terri Lyne Carrington

Composer: Writer of Music

by Sheryl Aronson and Staff Writer

Terri Lyne Carrington, two-time Grammy Award winning jazz drummer, is also a composer and lyricist, record producer, and professor at Berklee College of Music.  She wrote her first song at ten years of age and recorded her first CD at sixteen.  The process that Terri uses when she writes and composes her songs is very personal to her.  Typically, she follows a structured creative format.

“A melody comes into my head.  I see if it’s worth investigating.  I hear the chord progression and patterns.  I then have to go to a keyboard to plush it out,” Terri says.

Sometimes the lyrics to a song and the melody come together, but for Terri these are rare occasions.   “When this occurs, it’s the best.  Usually the melody comes to mind then the lyrics.  Every so often the lyrics come first,” Terri shares.

The types of songs Terri composes and writes lyrics for vary.  Not wanting to be categorized as just a Jazz musician, Terri calls upon her vast musical knowledge to compose.  On The Mosaic Project CD, which she won her first Grammy in 2011, she used a myriad of female vocalists to resonate the melodies and lyrics to songs, old and new.  She produced a 14 song-set featuring recording artists including Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Esperanza Spalding, and Sheila E.  Her goal for Mosaic II, which she is now working on, is to take classic R&B songs and revise them, as well as write and co-write new songs that reflect an R&B sound with a jazz component.

“A jazz song keeps going – you can make it like a suite musically, but a pop song has a definitive structure.  There is a verse, chorus, and sometimes a bridge.  It can have a simple song format of 4/4 time.”

To write a hit Pop or R&B song takes a great amount of work.  Terri comments on being a lyricist in this category:  “Lyrics tell a story, but to make it brilliant and for the song to become a hit, is very difficult.”

Terri doesn’t consider herself a poet, but a storyteller.  She will not just write lyrics without music.  “I haven’t studied poetry or literature, so my skills or my craft with words are not as developed as a poet’s.  Now, Joni Mitchell is both a poet and lyricist.  She’s my favorite lyricist.  When I asked Joni who was her inspiration, she said Sting.”

In Terri’s humble and gracious way she comments about her own song writing ability, “I’m still trying to write and take a person on a journey.  How do you tell a story?  It’s very difficult.  I’m not sure I really do.”

A funny story occurred between Terri and I when I had the opportunity to sit in on a recording session with she and Chante Moore in Los Angeles back in April.  They were working on a new song called “Best of the Best”, written by Terri and Valerie Simpson, one half of the legendary R&B duo Ashford and Simpson, the better half of Nick Ashford, who we all miss.  I listened to the lyrics of the song all evening and thought it was a beautiful, romantic love song that a lover was singing to her boyfriend or husband.  After the recording session was over I commented to Terri about how lovely the song was and she smiled and said, “I wrote this song in honor of George Duke.  He was a mentor and a friend.  But a good song has many meanings.”

How long does it take for this creative artist to write a song?  Again, it depends on the circumstances.  Some songs a few days, others many years.  “I can write a song in a couple of days, other times it can take ten years.  I just finished a song called “Grass Roots” and I had started it ten years ago.  Now it’s okay, it’s cool and I’ve finally recorded it.”

But if Terri has a deadline to complete, she writes as fast as the project demands.  The frustrating aspect of doing this is letting go of the song even if you don’t feel the work is done.  “You may just have to settle.  A mix is never finished,” Terri revealed.  She quoted Mr. Quincy Jones, “Quincy Jones said, ‘A song can always get better.’

For Terri, the creative process is as natural as breathing.  “I have to create.  I’m happiest when I’m writing and composing music.  I get a sense of satisfaction and know that some part of me will last forever…and will have legs past my life.”

Terri composes and writes on her computer so wherever the computer resides, that’s her writing spot.  “Mostly I write at the kitchen counter.  I wear head phones and block all outside distractions.”

How much time does this Grammy Award winning musician spend writing?  “I don’t spend a certain period of time writing every day.  I’m not that organized.”

However, Miss Carrington feels that sometimes writers don’t go deep enough into their work and give up.  “I look at a lyric, then I go back to it, see if every word, every phrase is right, and ask myself is the writing saying it better this way or can I say it better with other words.”

Terri follows the Duke’s advice when it comes to creative expression.  In 2014, this 48 year old artist won the Grammy as the Best Jazz Instrumentalist for her remaking of Duke Ellington’s 1962, album, “Money Jungle”.  No woman in the history of Jazz has ever won in this category.  So it’s fitting that Terri quotes from this incredible, gifted man when speaking about the creative process. Terri shares, “Duke Ellington said before he died, ‘Don’t ever think it’s finished.  When you think it’s finished, look at it again.’